A Modern Take on Modern War.

2010.05.14

Fungus the Bogeyman

This article from Helmand Blog talks about something which had not really crossed my mind until this morning. (Although, looking back through my notes, it was something that I wrote down.)

Apparently NATO is being blamed for the spread of a fungus which is "thought to have infected about half of the country's poppy crop." This to me is indicative of NATO's continued refusal to look beyond the strategy of eradication, and consider other, more COIN-friendly methods of mitigating Afghanistan's truly awesome capacity to grow poppies.

Any moves away from eradication though, according to World Policy Review, are seen by the Russians as evidence of "US and NATO forces in Afghanistan ... 'conniving with drug producers'" (That's pretty much all I could read of that article, since I haven't subscribed...) But then, that would assume that the US is going to pay some kind of attention to the Russians. When clearly this isn't necessarily the case, as this quote from Nathan Hodge's post on Danger Room shows: "Anatoly Sitnov, the former head of procurement for Russia’s armed forces, had a better (and more eeeevil!) quote. 'Who owns space, owns the world,' he said. 'When we tried to test laser weapons in space, we were told that the militarization of outer space must not occur and we stopped, but the United States has started and continues to test these weapons even today.'"

Despite what the Russians think about non-eradication policies being indicative of collusion, eradication is simply counterproductive in terms of counterinsurgency doctrine. Therefore, while it's possible that the US have poisoned Afghan poppies, it would be highly unwise for them to do so.

In this recent GAO report, comes the suggestion that eradication may not be the best strategy. Although it still consumes ~40% of the State and Defence department budgets (page 5). Eradication simply is not the way. I've cited this piece before, but this sentence sums it up for me:

"Karzai had long opposed aerial eradication, saying it would be misunderstood as some sort of poison coming from the sky."

This BBC report points out that "about a decade ago, we know that the UN and British scientists were trying to develop a fungus, which would destroy the opium poppies grown here in Afghanistan."

Perhaps this was refering to Pleospora papaveracea (there's an article about it here), which was developed during the first decade of this century. I suppose it'll be nigh on impossible to know for sure, though.

While I hope, for the good of the counterinsurgent forces in Afghanistan, that this is not the case, if it is, and the Americans (or NATO) are poisoning Afghan poppies, it would be indicative of a larger trend in the US ignoring lessons, left, right and centre again.

Some day, maybe, they'll learn. I should finish Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife.